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The funny thing about parenting is…that I see more now than I did when I was young, free and single!

I know I’m super early to be thinking about this, but every day on my way to work and on my way home, I’m seeing so many homeless people. I’m seeing people who I see daily slowly fade away. This morning I bought a guy a coffee and a sandwich. But it really got me thinking. I’ve got so many things at home which I no longer need-clothes/toys and food that I forget about. What I’ll be doing for the lead up to Christmas is creating a reverse advent calendar. But I’ll also be going through our wardrobes and toy collections and dropping them off to charities. I’d love to know if anyone else would love to get involved with me and I can then reach out to charities to see what they’re greatest need is and create an advent calendar for us all to work to (prompts if you will!) and hopefully we’d be able to create a #dublingivingcommunity and #Irishgivingcommunity Anyone else with me? Christmas is such an expensive time of year for everyone but adding a couple of basics to your shopping would be a huge help! It would also remind us to do it! Let me know if anyone wants to join in x

Drop me a message to thefunnythingaboutparenting@gmail.com or on Instagram or Facebook.

The funny thing about parenting is … that we totally get excited about Hallowe’en and that ‘C’ word which we won’t mention just yet!

I spent an insane amount on decorations the other day – as we all know – we have to decorate the house for the child’s sake. It’s all for the child. I swear.

I’ve spoken to a heap of parents and they all have their kids costumes sorted. I potentialy do. I might (shock, horror for me) actually re-use one costume from last year. I may also re-use her fairy costume which I made from all different bits and bobs, but, I may buy this:

This amazing creation can be picked up from http://www.miramira.ie and is a wonderful piece by Rock Your Baby/Kid (edit as appropriate depending on age!).

It’s a dress which can be worn daily, as well as for Hallowe’en and I think that’s what is key for Hallowe’en. The reason that I can re-use some bits and bobs from last year is because they weren’t actual hallowe’en outfit, but skirts, tops, tights and so on all with a Hallowe’en theme. You can really save a few bob quite easily.

If I purchase the above gorgeousness, I shall be pairing it with some Doc Martin’s and some cute tights, and I can easily pick up a cute little hat/accessory from H&M and voila-a re-usable outfit full of everyday pieces.

But the thing to remember is that: everyday is for dressing up, not just Hallowe’en.

The funny thing about parenting is ….that shock, horror, parents post pictures of their children online.

I read a piece recently in the Irish Times. It actually didn’t have any purpose, any opinions so to speak except for being a little vent about all the latest photos of kids online.

But hey, what would I know. I am one of those mothers that posts pictures of my child on Instagram, on Facebook and on Twitter. And I surely must be doing this to just show off as I must not mention the bad times.

This actually couldn’t be further from the truth.

I did not post my pregnancy news on Facebook. Very few people knew I was pregnant. This was probably down to the fact that subconsciously I was afraid of people being ‘judgey’ and by that I mean as in ‘oh look at her posting her pregnancy news, now all we’re going to hear about is the baby this and baby that’. Interestingly enough, when I eventually posted a photo of myself and the hubby posing beside a pram-it actually got more likes and comments than even my wedding photos. With that came ‘where are the baby pictures and why didn’t you post pictures of your bump?!’. I lived in London at the time and family were kept up to date via various means of communication-from FaceTime to album sharing. It was only when Paige was 7 months old that I realised that there was this huge community online that I knew nothing about and probably could’ve utilised when I was on maternity leave. It was also 3 days before I returned to work that I posted an actual picture of Paige on my Facebook. One where everyone could see her cute little face and hairless head. Since then, I have gone on to post hundreds(and I mean hundreds) of pictures of her on Instagram and not so many hundreds on Facebook. But the reality is, my pictures of me apparently boasting on Facebook receive many, many more likes than me tagging into Coppers (one time people, one time!). Surely I can’t be the only one who looks at my Facebook Staus Bar thinking really?! What am I meant to say?!

If you’ve been on Facebook for X amount of years, you’ve probably checked into tonnes of places and in reality now you’re just sat at home watching X Factor on a Saturday night. I think the reality is that as we grow older, we evolve and yeap, that means people start having babies and they pretty much consume all their time. I also think we kind of get fed up checking into places as we’ve probably been there already.

Within my friends group on Facebook, the majority are settling down, getting married, buying houses and along come the little sprogs who manage to get more likes out of us rather than us being absolutely twisted in a bar. Who knew? (Aren’t we all secretly cringing at the absolute state of us all back in 2005/2006 and so on when we took pictures on a digital camera🙈).

This leads nicely to the whole thing of embarrassing our children. Really? I think we embarrassed ourselves hideously when digital cameras and iPhones and any phone with a camera came out. Our generation invented the selfie for christs sake-so with any luck our children will look at that and think-god you embarrassed yourselves way more than the pictures you took of me😂

I look at my postings on Instagrams as memories that one day Paige will be able to look through and go ‘wow, you truly love me’ and with that I mean through everything. Through the tantrums, through the sickness and through the blissful moments. My aim is to chart her growth, her inner beauty and her wonderment of the world around her-from pointing at stars to getting acquainted with the sea and sand. I want to capture everything that I can. Working full-time means that from time to time, I do miss precious ‘firsts’ so to speak, but I try to be around to capture everything I can. I want to have memories that she will eventually be able to look upon and for her to show her children, her friends, partners, family later on down the line.

I love looking back at albums that my parents have stowed away, but now it’s so much easier. I am also terrible at printing out photos and usually upload and empty pictures from my phone every month, so having this ability to go online and remember a picture by looking at the date and remembering why I posted it is special. I’m not asking people to like them. I really couldn’t care less whether they like it or not, just unfollow me or unfriend me.

I’ve unfollowed people for posting the same stuff day in day out, I don’t have to like their posts. I am still friends with them, I’ve just unfollowed them. I’ve also seen people repeatedly post stuff that they have no idea about. At least we’re not posting cryptic messages saying how much someone has annoyed us, but won’t say who or why!?!

I’ve also made some amazing friends online all through the power of our mutual adoration of our children and we’ve all been their to handhold if something isn’t quite right, if they’ve needed a vent or even just needed to see if something is normal. The power of this has been amazing. To know that you’re not alone, as sometimes parenting can be so isolating- as you do tend to lose touch with some friends- because we may not want to always air our frustrations with potty training or how our child is tantrumming because they wanted ‘something nice’ but everything you gave them was not ‘nice’ is a huge relief.

Instagram and Facebook, and for those that I follow is a huge support. It’s an amazing network of parents who want to help each other – don’t get me wrong, there are a few out there who will bash other parents for doing something wrong or will say everything in their lives is perfect – but I choose not to follow them, for my own sanity.

I suppose this whole idea of oversharing works both ways, and no matter which way you look at it, we all move on. We will always lose friends as time goes on. We are all growing up in the world of social media, and if someone wants to unfollow me for posting pictures of my child because they don’t want to see her, that’s fine, it doesn’t bother me. Just like I don’t really have time to go out that much anymore now that I’ve bought a house, and have a child to look after. That’s evolution. We’re all slowly growing up and our priorities change and thus our outlook on life and what’s important to us changes. And is posting pictures of our child on Facebook or Instagram really any different to posting a selfie or a picture of our OOTD or dog any different?

I don’t think so. We post what we care about most, and what makes us smile each day. Surely that’s all that matters.

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The funny thing about parenting is…that when something like what happened in Nice happens, so many emotions come to the forefront. Those pictures, my god those pictures.

Hug them, squeeze them, tell them you love them, just look at them, stare away to your hearts content-even if they look at you funny. Take in every detail of their little faces. Promise to look after them forever. Promise to love them forever. Kiss them. Kiss them again. Hold their warm hands. Forget about all those things that frustrate you, even just for a few short minutes. For all those things that frustrate us, some parents, families, friends, grandparents, aunts, uncles, sisters, brothers will never get to experience that again. And even those frustrations we take for granted as it’s what makes everyone of us unique. But for some, they will never get to see the beautiful faces of those who were so cruelly taken away at such a joyous time, walk back in to the room to annoy them. They will not get to hold their warm hands again. They will not get to stare so intently at their features and get that look back that says ‘stop being weird’. Don’t take these moments for granted. They are and always will be in the back of your mind. Hug them, kiss them, love them, forever.

We are all human, we all have our own beliefs, and we are all entitled to them, but at the heart of it, we are all human. We have feelings. We hurt when others hurt. When laugh when others laugh. We are all human.

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The funny thing about parenting is … That kids really don’t care where they are, they just want to get away from the norm too!

We are off on our second staycation so far this year. This time however, it’s all planned for us. Dinner reservations-done. Activities-arranged. All that we need to do is get there and enjoy it.

I’m not going to lie, the ease of not having to pack for a foreign holiday is amazing. No airports, passport control or throngs of people rushing. All we’re doing is hopping in the car for the drive (1 and half hours away) and voila! Paige is excited-she told me under no circumstances are we to order to the room-we are eating out. God I’ve got a diva. Or a child who truly enjoys the high life.

Keep your eyes peeled on our snapchat-the.rit, Instagram- @toddling_along, and Twitter-@ritawhyte for updates on our trip to Ireland’s Anciest East and Athlone!

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The funny thing about parenting is…that we (thankfully) forget the pain of teething, but that also means we can’t remember how the little ones feel.

I feel that we have been in a constant world of teething. It feels like it will be never ending.

Paige started teething at around 4-5 weeks old, well that’s when we really notice it. So off we went to the Health Nurse who promptly dismissed our claims in a tone of ‘Sure, what would you know?’ and ‘I’m 100% certain she’s not teething, you’re just being over-dramatic as first time parents’. Sure enough, we definitely were not being overly dramatic as she cut her first tooth at 4 months old, which would put everything into perspective.

Being first time parents had nothing to do with asking her if there was anything she would recommend for such a young baby to help with teething pains. We just wanted to help our little one through the pain that she was obviously in. The chemist on the other hand was a lot more helpful and offered great advice and products to try at her age.

When the first tooth reared it’s little head, the excitement in the house was amazing-‘It’s here’! Role on 2 years and 2 weeks since we found that tooth and we are still going through it. This time however, Paige has the ability to tell us where hurts and if it’s bad.

We’ve literally gone through every single symptom for teething-

Teething poo (although we actually had a doctor tell us there’s no such thing and we were bad parents for thinking that teething poo’s exist-but my god they do!)

Nappy rash (This used to get so, so bad I actually nearly cried as he bum was so sore)

Drooling

Chin rashes

Chesty cough (this has been a consistent one for our house)

Cheek rash

Pink cheeks

Biting

Grinding of gums

Puking

High fever

Blocked nose

Crankiness

Disrupted sleep

Wanting an Actimel at midnight(yeap, all week this week and every single night)

I’m pretty sure that we’ve experienced a few more symptoms but these are what stick out for me!

I’m hoping with all hope that this is in fact the last molar to come through as boy do they suck. They appear to take forever (Paige’s molars have been coming through since last year!).

A big consistent element throughout this whole teething experience has been to trust your own instinct. Doctor’s and nurses can offer advice but when it comes to teething, each and every child has a different reaction to it. Each and every child and parent has their own way of dealing with it. But as parents, we are there to soothe their pain and help them cope by using what we feel is right-whether it be amber bracelets, teething gel, or Sophie the Giraffe and other teething rings/rubbers etc.

Go with your gut is effectively what I’m trying to say, and nobody should put you down. Mother’s instinct is a great thing and something that we all possess. It just clicks in. Father’s have it too 🙂 So lets call it ‘parents instinct’ going forward!

We are all trying to do the same thing, raise our kids to be the best that they can be. We’re in this together.

The funny thing about parenting is…that we’re all not experts, We’re all in the same boat. We all have our own ways of getting through the challenges, the ups and downs and we’re all here for each other.

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The funny thing about parenting is…that our kids are actually way smarter than us.

On Sunday, I asked Paige “What’s this?” and her reply, “A letter mummy.” I go on to ask her “What letter?”, and her reply once again “That letter mummy” and queue her falling around in hysterics.

Yeap, I was outsmarted by a two year old as she was by no means incorrect. It’s not the first time she’s done something like this, and boy did I feel a fool. I even turned to her and said “fair play, you are absolutely right” and what I can take from it is that I need to be clearer in my instructions.

It still makes me smile thinking back and seeing her little face light up as she knew exactly what she had said. She knew the letter was a ‘p’ but damned if she was going to tell me again.

So in essence, our kids will always be one step ahead of us, but it’s a good thing, we just got to keep up with them, and hopefully, by the time they’re teenagers, we will have copped on to their smarts and be able to outwit them-it’s cute for now, but not at 13!